Hard Reset your Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Performing a Hard Reset on your device is simple as pie. The difference between a Factory Reset and a Hard Reset is:

Factory ResetThe 'lighter' of the two reset options. It can be done either in settings or via recovery menu. It wipes all user data and firmware settings, but leaves the contents of your internal SDcard intact.

Hard ResetRestores a smartphone to its basic factory settings, which erases all applications that were installed by the user as well as all user data. Hard Reset wipes everything including the contents of your internal SD Card. Whatever firmware you last flashed will be the firmware you get back, but everything else will be wiped.

Hi Kay Zee, the most common reason to reset is to try to fix performance issues or to clean out your phone. For example, when you delete apps or move them to SD storage, you might still have random bits left over, a reset will clear all those out, giving you a fresh phone. Also, sometimes the only way to get rid of adware or malware problems is to do a factory reset. It's also not a bad idea to do a factory reset every now and then just to keep your phone running at it's best.

There are some apps out there which are quite good for backing up your data. A good one I know is Carbon (not the Twitter client). Here in our blog, we explain how to use this with AND without rooting your phone. Hope that this helps!

Hi !! I have Sumsung galaxy note 2 phone and it keep restarting so i cant use it. I wanted to hard reset i tried to reset using your recomendation but its not working. Even when i turn off the phone it keep back on by itself. Is there anything else i can do? Please i need help.

Hi @Hana, let me get this straight: your Note 2 keeps turning off and back on, regardless of whether it is turned on or off in the first place? This is a major problem and sounds like you might have internal hardware problems. If a Hard Reset isn't even solving the problem you might need to contact Samsung directly, because this is no normal problem.

Hi @Luis, did anything happen to the device (like dropping it or getting it wet?). If not, try hard resetting it, and if the display doesn't work at all during this process you might be facing a dead screen. In that case you'd need to contact the manufacturer or the place you bought it from and see what can be done. Has anyone else had this type of problem with their Note 2?

For the past week or so my phone battery life has been horrid. Even while charging the battery depletes at an alarming rate. I have switched chargers to see if that is the issue and ordered a new battery but I am wondering if a factory or hard reset may help in any way.

Hi @Natalie, it could be the case that your Note 2 battery has simply given up the ghost, although usually you should get two to three years out of a battery. But if you're on your Note 2 all the time and have put it through a lot of charge cycles then it will die sooner rather than later. So it's probably good that you've ordered a new battery although battery life diminishes over time, not usually within a week. You could try a Factory Reset (which would be a good idea prior to putting the new battery in) to clear out any gremlins that might be lurking in your system. That, combined with a new battery should have your Note 2 working at the best level possbile. Just make sure you do a backup of all your data before you reset! let me know if the problem persists even with the new battery.

Hi, I have a note 2 that my friend rooted for me. He told me it would make it better, but its made it slower and I cant up date my software. If I do this hard reset, as the phone is now, will it work? Or do I have to unroot it first?

Hi @Nick, rooting your phone doesn't speed up your device - it just gives you access to do the kinds of things that could speed up your device. If you want to unroot your Note 2 there's a good few examples on this thread at XDA Developers. Hard resetting will simply wipe everything from your Note 2 and will, in general, clear up the majority of lags and other performance issues on a device that hasn't been in use for a while.

Hi @Kuro - is the device getting sufficient power? What you're describing sounds like the battery is completely dead and thus can't power the screen, except for a second or two when you hit the power button. Have you tried turning it on when it connected to the wall socket/power outlet? Other than that I'm not sure what the problem might be. What happens when you do the button combination for a Hard Reset? Do you get to the Recovery screen? Or is it just black all the time?

Hi, I want to reset my Note 2 to get rid of bugs that keep making the screen stop responding among other thing, and I probably just want to use hard reset so I know everything will be in place. My question is what is ment by "you can't use files from SD-card after reset to fabricsettings (or factory-?)". This (or something like this (it is in Norwegian)) is what it says when I enter the reset settings. It says the reset will remove the key for decrypting files at the SD-card. Does it mean my SD-card won't work after a reset, at all? I know all my files will be gone, but I want my SD-card to work :p

Hi, I have a 2 week old note 2 that's already giving me some issues. 1.One of which is that the screen doesn't timeout sometimes. This seems to be random as it happened on various screens (open apps as well as while on the home screen). I tried looking at the apps with wake lock options and don't see anything out of the ordinary. I had another note 2 prior to this new one and had the same apps installed on it, but it never gave me this screen issue. 2.Also, sometimes when I swipe the screen on the lock screen to answer an incoming call, it hangs up instead picking up, and once the screen even froze (I swiped and nothing happened). 3. Lastly I used an app called USER DICTIONARY to add words I often use to the phone, my previous Note 2 keyboards picks up all the new words I added, but this new phone doesn't. I think there r a couple of other small glitches but I can't remember right now. It just seems this phone is very buggy compared to the previous one I had, unfortunately that one was stolen Thanks in advance!

Hi @Camila, you are correct, if you perform a Hard Reset you will lose all data on your internal memory because the encryption key will be lost too - meaning any files on there will no longer be accessible, even if you were to recover them. The simple solution is to perform a full backup using whatever system you like (app, root tool, cloud, manual backup) and then go ahead, then you can restore anything you like and be rid of any of the things that may have been causing the lags and bugs in the first place. But your SD card will still work after a Hard Reset, you will simply get a new encryption key after the Reset.

Hey @Christine. Where did you get the Note 2 from (second hand or retailer?) and what version of Android are you running on it? Has it updated to 4.3 yet or are you still on 4.1.2? If you are happy to do a backup you can do a reset (Factory or Hard) and start over, if you didn't do so when you got it (assuming it wasn't brand new). If it was brand new I'd simply take it back and let Samsung/the retailer deal with it. And if you haven't already updated to 4.3 hold off until you know the update is performing better than it is on the S3 and S4 (there's LOTS of issues right now!)